# Secret Link...again



## DarkAura (Jun 26, 2011)

The other topic was too old, and bumping it might not be the best idea.

So, talk about the Secret Link, but don't give it away. Thats the fun of trying to get to it....even though i'm stuck on clue 3. X|

So, how far have you gotten on it?


((If the other topic should be bumped, then this can go ignored. 3X))


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## Eloi (Jun 26, 2011)

I found it because I found it on the old site, and they are basically in the same location as it was a few years ago, and back then it was super-easy to find, so yeah.  The secret link is awesome because it contains the Writing Guide, which I really, really love. I still consult it for my stories, as Butterfree is just that good.


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## DarkAura (Jun 26, 2011)

I have yet to find it, although the last line on clue 3 must be really important.

"is actually 88, and also 31"

I know theres a way to actually manipulate it to get to there, but you'd have to haveinsane luck for it. =/


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## Zero Moment (Jun 27, 2011)

The clues aren't actually clues, just gibberish, except the fifth one I think.


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## Butterfree (Jun 27, 2011)

If you mean URL manipulation, that only works for the clues; the filename of the actual secret page is a long string of complete nonsense.

(Also, ugh, the writing guide is _old_ and _bad_ and ick.)

The clues are clues. They're just very vague and unhelpful ones. If somebody finds all the clues and _actually_ figures out where the secret link is located as a result I really commend their puzzle-solving skills.


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## Eloi (Jun 27, 2011)

Butterfree said:


> (Also, ugh, the writing guide is _old_ and _bad_ and ick.)


You are as bad with perfectionism and constant revision as Game Freak with Pokemon, I swear. I think most of the stuff you write is good even if it is old. =3


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## DarkAura (Jun 27, 2011)

I've tried URL manipulation on the first three clues, then found the 3 clues legitly, however, i cannot get to the fourth clue, even with URL manipulation.

I know 88 and 31 mean  Teehee, you didnt think i'd say it, would you. XD , but i still could not figure it out. How to get to the fourth clue. =\


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## Butterfree (Jun 27, 2011)

...how can you not be able to get to the fourth clue _even with URL manipulation_? o_O I mean, it's in a very, very subtle _place_ (I only know of a couple of people who have actually legitimately _found_ clue four), but actually accessing the fourth clue's page with URL manipulation is exactly the same as accessing any other clue with URL manipulation.

Also, did you miss the bit where the clues don't point towards the next clue? The third clue has nothing to do with where the fourth clue is. The clues are all tips for the search for the secret link in general; it's not a linear progression from clue to clue.


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## Michi (Jun 27, 2011)

Can I just say that looking for the secret link is almost maddening and took over half my life before I found it 2 days ago?
I never found clue four. I commend those who have, because I thought I looked everywhere possible.


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## Mendatt (Jun 27, 2011)

I legitimately found all five clues about a year ago, although I can't remember where any of them but clue five are now. I bookmarked them immediately, anyways. I even have a document on my computer where I've put speculations about what they mean. Because I don't really want to randomly search the site. I think I'm getting fairly close, though.

Also, is there anyone who doesn't know what 88 and 31 mean?


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## Superbird (Jun 27, 2011)

Yes.


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## .... (Jun 27, 2011)

I cheated to find the Secret Link, and then found it legitimately. :p


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## 1. Luftballon (Jun 28, 2011)

Butterfree said:


> If you mean URL manipulation, that only works for the clues; the filename of the actual secret page is a long string of complete nonsense.


that's actually much more helpful a hint than at least three of the clues themselves.



Butterfree said:


> ...how can you not be able to get to the fourth clue _even with URL manipulation_? o_O I mean, it's in a very, very subtle _place_ (I only know of a couple of people who have actually legitimately _found_ clue four), but actually accessing the fourth clue's page with URL manipulation is exactly the same as accessing any other clue with URL manipulation.


does anyone still read it? when was the last time an access to it was logged? (I mean, apart from the fact that I don't believe it's reasonably possible to actually read the page it's on anymore without some trickery.)


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## Butterfree (Jun 29, 2011)

The fourth clue has been moved from where it originally was to somewhere that uses a similar principle but is still accessible and makes _more_ sense than the original location. (Well, technically that location is not the _original_ but instead the second location, but yeah, that's inaccessible so it had to be put somewhere else.)


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## 1. Luftballon (Jun 29, 2011)

... great, now I have to find the new location, too. excuse me.


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## Lord of the Fireflies (Jun 30, 2011)

Ok what is this nonsense everybody is talking about.


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## DarkAura (Jun 30, 2011)

No nonsense. The secret link. It's where you search the main site for the clues. It's in a very subtle place. If you look at the other Topic called secret link, which i dont think should be bumped, then it'll tell you about it. Not where it is, but about it.


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## Loffyglu (Jun 30, 2011)

Funny thing, actually; I found the Secret Link a few years ago completely by accident. *laugh* I was just on one random page, not really thinking about the Secret Link at all, and... I don't remember, I guess maybe my arm bumped the mouse or something? I dunno, but either way the next thing I knew, I was on the Secret Link page~ I still wish I'd screenshot it, but oh well...


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## Chief Zackrai (Jul 3, 2011)

are we allowed to inquire as to what the secret link _leads_ to? Is it just some "congratulations" page like the Marquee of Doom (which I survived, by the way), or is it something really neat and worth all the effort I understand must be gone through to find it?


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## DarkAura (Jul 3, 2011)

Sizz-Lorr said:


> are we allowed to inquire as to what the secret link _leads_ to? Is it just some "congratulations" page like the Marquee of Doom (which I survived, by the way), or is it something really neat and worth all the effort I understand must be gone through to find it?


The Marquee of doom was fucking hard! When i just went to eat dinner, it said "You missed the prize, boo you!"... I threw my laptop at the wall and then tried again.

The secret link is hard for me, cause i could only get to clue 3.


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## Butterfree (Jul 3, 2011)

> are we allowed to inquire as to what the secret link leads to? Is it just some "congratulations" page like the Marquee of Doom (which I survived, by the way), or is it something really neat and worth all the effort I understand must be gone through to find it?


The secret page has things that are vaguely of interest on it, mostly random stuff I've made or started to make at some point in time but is not actually on the site for one reason or another. I wouldn't say it's "really neat and worth all the effort", exactly, though.



> The secret link is hard for me, cause i could only get to clue 3.


Again, the secret link game is _not_ a progression from clue 1 to clue 2 to clue 3 to clue 4 to clue 5 to the secret link itself. Most of the clues can be found in any order, and all of the clues are general tips, not clues as to the location of the next clue specifically.


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## DarkAura (Jul 3, 2011)

I know that, but i cant find the other clues. I am positive one of the clues i found was important.


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## bulbasaur (Jul 3, 2011)

Not to mention that the clues are just about useless. Though one _may_ ring a bell.


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## Michi (Jul 3, 2011)

bulbasaur said:


> Not to mention that the clues are just about useless. Though one _may_ ring a bell.


Well after you get all 5 clues and find the secret link itself, it all makes a little more sense and you see how the clues could be useful.


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## Mendatt (Jul 3, 2011)

I have a horrible habit of getting through the marquee of doom and having my computer crash. I did it three times, actually. Umm. Last week. The week before that it was...  Five? The week before that was two... Hmm...

Edit: Sorry, twas looking at the wrong page. Anyways, I have every intent of being on of the first to find the secret link entirely based on information from the clues. It'll happen one of these years.


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## Karkat Vantas (Jul 3, 2011)

If you do that, Mendatt, I recommend you paste the clues into Word or something similar once you've found them.

Aside from the obvious benefits of doing so, it makes the location of one of the clues way more obvious.


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## Mendatt (Jul 4, 2011)

You mean the (SPOILER) Yeah, it was helpful for that.


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## scizorrules (Aug 19, 2011)

Dang, the clue game dude was like, so totally hard dude. Still stuck at clue dude 1, Who asks for popularity? Why do people hate it so?


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## Chief Zackrai (Aug 19, 2011)

It's it's yellow


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## Squornshellous Beta (Aug 19, 2011)

Butterfree said:


> Okay. Guys. Look.
> 
> The clue game is about figuring out _the clues on the page_.
> 
> This means that when you give hints, you can hint at how the clue  relates to the answer or narrow down the range of possible answers (e.g.  "It's a Pokémon"). You can NOT give a completely different but much  easier clue like "The first Pokémon that non-Pokémon fans would think  of" or "This Pokémon can change into any other Pokémon" that happens to  result in the same answer or give them the answer to the actually tricky  part of the clue and leave them to figure out the easy one. That _defeats the whole point of the clue game_.  If you give hints like that, somebody could theoretically get through  the entire game without actually knowing what the heck any of the clues  even mean. That is not what the clue game is meant for. Give hints, not  blatant giveaways.


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## Chief Zackrai (Aug 19, 2011)

changed it.

I _knew_ I was missing something.


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## Butterfree (Aug 19, 2011)

This is the thread about the secret link, not the clue game. :P


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## marill (Jan 6, 2012)

Okay I'm completely stuck on the secret link. Can anybody make it a little more explicit? Some people have said they've "cheated" their way to finding it...how do you do that?

In all honesty, "mysteries" like these ones just make me want to find the ending, legitimately or not.


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## Spoon (Jan 8, 2012)

I _just_ found the Secret Link. It's taken me more than half a decade to find it, but I finally did. You have no idea how happy this makes me.

 marill, your best bet is to explore the site. The secret link is on almost every page of the site, so don't get stuck on trying to find it on a certain page, like I did. Also, your cursor won't look like it's hovering over a link when your cursor on the link, so just moving your mouse around won't help you at all. You could randomly click everywhere on the site, and you'll probably eventually find it. Just remember that the link is invisible, so explicitly marked links should be ruled out on sight. Sorry, I can't really say much more, but good luck on finding it! Hopefully, you'll find sooner than it took me.


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## 1. Luftballon (Jan 8, 2012)

the amusing thing about the secret link is that it isn't actually a link anymore.


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## CloudCat (Nov 17, 2012)

I just found the secret link, like 5 minutes ago!! I personally think the Secret Page is super cool!


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## Lcatnip (Nov 7, 2015)

I was on clue 3, the one with the numbers, and I figured they could be  pokemon numbers. i got nidoqueen and grimer which seem random. huh.


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## Superbird (Nov 7, 2015)

You mean clue number 4. 

The numbers are 20 / 10 / 230 / 10 / 230 / ??. Do the first five look similar to anything? If so, what's the sixth number?
Also, keep in mind that the Clue Game hasn't changed since approx. gen 3, so that narrows your options a little bit.


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## Lcatnip (Nov 7, 2015)

Found it! ha ha ha, that  was tough, but now i feel great.


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## Raiden (Nov 18, 2016)

Oh dear lord, I just found it. I would never have guessed even from the clues that it was there.


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## Omkey (Jun 7, 2019)

Oh my god, I think I may have just set a record for how fast I found the secret link. I was using your honey tree guide to find some munchlax trees for my latest Diamond playthrough and decided to look around the site some. Found the page describing the secret link game and got curious.

That was only five hours ago and I found the page using the clues I could find! The only one I didn't find legitimately was 4, but as I've read here that's pretty much the norm.

I'm really curious how you managed to hide the link like that though. I'm not gonna ask you to give up your secrets, so don't worry about that. No, worry that I'm taking a web development class over the summer and I intend to do my research!

Now to get some sleep before I check out that marquee...


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## BananaBread127 (Sep 18, 2019)

I found the secret link by just looking at source code, not knowing what the address was for, my reaction upon seeing the page was somewhere along the lines of "what?", "huh?" or "oh".  



Spoiler: Contents of the Secret Page



I then found where the link was using the contents of the Secret Page.


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## kimbachu (Jan 4, 2021)

It's been a while since this thread was active, but I didn't feel like it was necessary to make a *another* thread about The Secret Link, so I guess I'll try and revive this one.

So I found Clue #1 and Clue #5 the legitimate way, and I cheated a bit and used the URL manipulation trick to find the other three. Most people that have solved the mystery seem to suggest that Clue #3's _"eighty-eight - and also thirty-one"_ and Clue #5's _"find it more quickly a webmaster will"_ seem to be the most relevant/useful hints.

I've gone over all of the existing threads about The Secret Link, and have concluded a few things:

First, the link doesn't look like a link.


Spoon said:


> Also, your cursor won't look like it's hovering over a link when your cursor on the link, so just moving your mouse around won't help you at all. You could randomly click everywhere on the site, and you'll probably eventually find it. Just remember that the link is invisible, so explicitly marked links should be ruled out on sight.


I'm assuming it's completely invisible, or disguised as something else entirely.

Second, even when viewing the site's source code, the link _still_ doesn't look like a link.


Butterfree said:


> The secret link isn't actually a link in the sense that it's not an HTML anchor tag, but it _is_ something you click that takes you to a different page.





1. Luftballon said:


> the amusing thing about the secret link is that it isn't actually a link anymore.


So from this, I'm assuming that going through the site's source code probably isn't going to help me much, because I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for.

Third, the link isn't actually hidden on a specific page; it's hidden on _every_ page.


Butterfree said:


> The Secret Link is not exactly on a particular page.





Spoon said:


> The secret link is on almost every page of the site, so don't get stuck on trying to find it on a certain page, like I did.


Fourth, the page that the secret link leads to has a filename that is a random string of letters and/or numbers.


#1 bro said:


> Wait, wtf? The url of the secret link is http://dragonflycave.com/ (a bunch of random letters that don't spell a word) .htm


So there's no way to cheat your way to the page by trying to guess what the page's filename is, and typing that in your browser. You gotta find it the hard way.

Clue #3 seems to suggest that the link is disguised as an 88 x 31px button or similar, and I'm getting "view the source code" vibes from Clue #5's "webmaster" hint but I could be completely wrong about that. That's kinda all I have at the moment.

In conclusion, Butterfree is some kind of link-hiding wizard and I have no idea where to even look anymore. Send help.


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## Sandstone-Shadow (Jan 5, 2021)

kimbachu said:


> I'm getting "view the source code" vibes from Clue #5's "webmaster" hint but I could be completely wrong about that. That's kinda all I have at the moment.


This is the wrong vibe to get from Clue #5 :)

(hopefully that helps and isn't too enigmatic haha)


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## Butterfree (Jan 6, 2021)

You've made some great, sound observations otherwise, though!


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## kimbachu (Jan 14, 2021)

Update: I actually found it! It was indeed very cleverly hidden and I was definitely not going to find it by looking at the source code (looking at the source code now, I see how you've managed to disguise it; well done!).


kimbachu said:


> In conclusion, Butterfree is some kind of link-hiding wizard[...].


I stand by this statement.


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## Bluwiikoon (Feb 7, 2021)

It is somehow very wholesome seeing Kimba figure out just where the secret link is from the clues alone :D Congrats!

Back in the day you could find the secret link by highlighting the page, and spoil all of the fun if you didn't realise. I love the clever tricks used to hide it more thoroughly on modern tCoD!

Clue #4 is very cleverly hidden, it's one of my faves. :3


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## qenya (Feb 8, 2021)

I've still never found clue #4... it's one of the great mysteries of TCoD.


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## Happy (Sep 19, 2022)

BLUWIIKOON FOUND CLUE 4????

I was JUST thinking about how I never authentically found clue 4
FEED US BUT A SNIPPET OF YOUR WISDOM!!!!

I feel like I tabbed my way to the secret link... a habit I picked up from watching Homestar Runner... but no clue why I employed that on this site. Maybe I found it first in the source code (but unintentionally!!!! I learnt all my CSS from cross referencing Butterfree's old templates with the site in practice :3 & then the HTML guide  & also neopets ) & wanted to find how exactly it was there, yet not there... hehe.

Actually I might crosspost what I just wrote in the guestbook that led me back to this

--

Undertale has had a huge update right now, a really cool (& HILARIOUS) 2000s themed minisite with lots of (not-very-)hidden links to new content… but every gen Zer is calling the infodrop an ARG  Even though the site has a little hint page that stresses it's not an ARG 
ITS NOT AN ARG YOU KIDS ITS SECRET LINKS YOU WOULD ALL KNOW IF YOU WERE STILL GOING TO THE COOL WEBSITE "THE "CAVE OF DRAGONFLIE'S""!!!!!!!!!!!!

also like it hits like a truck that.. there used to be one million of these but I cant even think of any other examples.. I didnt even realise a generation had _never seen it before_ since everything is now hosted on rigid socmed or a professional portfolio/business site… remember how it even used to say on the site (I think) that Butterfree wanted a secret link hunt cuz everyone had one? Sigh…


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